The Rundfunk Berlin-Brandenburg fired two directors without notice in the in-house crisis. The background should be special payments in connection with the ARD chairmanship of the rbb. By Gabi Probst
According to information from rbb24, the production director and administrative director of Rundfunk Berlin-Brandenburg (rbb) received notice of termination of their employment contracts on Friday.
The reason for the contract termination is said to have been a special payment of 1,700 euros per month for the ARD chairmanship. In the broadcaster’s intranet, rbb confirmed the separation from the two directors without giving any further details.
rbb director Kathrin Vernau said: “This is a turning point and will help us to start over at rbb.” The two directors were the last executives from the management of the former director Patricia Schlesinger.
Previously, rbb24 had exclusively researched that the special payments had already been paid for the two directors of rbb from July 2021, although the broadcaster only took over the ARD chairmanship from January 1, 2022. According to the employment contract of the production director and the administrative director, according to information from rbb24 research, “all activities for the station and supervisory board functions were compensated” with the non-tariff salary payments, so the special payments were illegal.
At the request of rbb24, SWR and WDR announced that there were no such allowances for taking over the ARD chairmanship in their stations. On January 1, 2023, SWR took over the ARD chairmanship from WDR.
The two directors did not comment on the rbb request.
Broadcast: rbb24 Inforadio, February 3, 2023, 1:40 p.m